AllFreeNovel
Share Us
12
Izzy
So Tired
“Just push, Izzy. Push again, but not so hard as before.” Cold hands touch my legs. Voices whoosh through a sea of echoes. “Gently does it.”
The contractions don’t hurt anymore, but the hands on my stomach do. Blood gushes each time the hands press down. That’s a lot of blood. They should stop. I don’t like it.
“Ruptured waters.” “Infection in the placenta.” “Hemorrhage.” “Baby’s in special care nursery.”
“One last push. Come on, last one.”
My body contracts. I push. The stabbing in my stomach forces a cry past my otherwise mute lips.
“Push, Izzy! Push through it. You’re nearly done.”
So I push some more. I push. I cry. The stomach stabbing continues, and the doctor wrestles between my legs.
“That’s it. All done, Izzy. It’s all out.” He pats my knee. “Sit back and relax for a minute.”
I slump back and let my head loll lifelessly to the side of the hard hospital pillow. A nurse stands at the far counter and writes in a blue folder. Two people in scrubs stand over a tray of gross steak.
Narrowing my eyes, my sluggish brain works to make sense of what’s in front of me. “What’s that?”
The doctor from before, the doctor who teased Jim, turns back and sends me scrambling into my pillow at the sight of his blood-soaked clothes.
Is that mine?
Is that Bean’s?
“That’s your placenta.” He steps forward slowly. “Your baby’s home for the last eight or so months.” He turns back to his colleague. “It’s all there. Package it up, send it to the lab.” Again, the bloody man turns back to me. “We have to put a few stitches in, okay?” He sits down near my feet and sorts through shiny tools. “You’ve done so well, Iz. I swear, we’re almost done. I’m going to put an anesthetic in to help numb the area, then just a few stitches and we’ll be all done. Are you ready?”
Am I ready? No.
Do I get a choice? Still no.
I nod lazily and lay back. The first needle goes in and a single tear slides from the corner of my eye and into my ear.
I lift my shaking hand and stare at the diamond ring Jim put there. Is that real? Did that happen?
Why am I so alone?
“Wake up, honey.” I startle at the hand that presses down onto my shoulder. Fluorescent lights flash and move above me as my bed is wheeled down a stark hallway. “We’re just taking you to your room now. You can go back to sleep.”
“Can I see my baby?”
“No.” She scans her ID badge over a security screen and has double electric doors whirring open. “Not yet, honey. She’s in special care, and you’re too ill to go in there. But when you wake in the morning, I promise, I’ll take you down.”
At the sight of wires and tubes hanging high above me, I curiously follow it with my eyes until I reach my wrist.
“That’s just for fluids and antibiotics. You got a nasty infection, but we’re fixing it for you, so don’t worry.”
“Is Bean sick, too?”
“Yeah, she is, but she’s getting medicine, too. So don’t worry about a thing.”
I simply nod. I’m so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open. They wheel my bed into a dark room and stop me in the middle. Pressing down the brakes, plugging my machines into the wall, the rhythmicbeep, beep, beeplulls me into a kind of meditation in seconds.
